My Day at the Art Museum

My Day at the Art Museum

By: Zachary Mitchell

What is art? According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. What I believe is art is anything that is appealing to the eye, it has meaning in some form or fashion, and it has artistic value to someone.

When I started contemplating about a community scene that I am not familiar with, then suddenly I got the perfect idea from my friend Ray in my WRD class. That idea was to go to the Reynolds’s art building, but I didn’t know where that building was, so I decided to go to The Art Museum in the Singletary Center. Currently at this moment, I am undecided in my studies as a student, but I know one thing, I am not an artist. I have never great at drawing or painting pictures. I could say that I don’t have the fine motor skills for drawing or painting. The only thing that I could ever draw was swords.

When I first walked into the museum, I got the feeling like I didn’t belong there. I also noticed that there wasn’t much sound in the museum. This caused a feeling of stoicism in the museum. The reason why I think this is so is that they want to observe and contemplate the meanings of the paintings and sculptures. I looked around, than a museum attendant called me over and asked me if this was my first time being in the museum. From there I said yes and I’m here to do my WRD scene depiction project. Then she said are you a student here and if so, show me your student ID. I showed her my ID and she told me I couldn’t take any pictures downstairs and I could take some upstairs. The reason why I couldn’t take any downstairs was that they putting on animal show art show. They had different types of animal painting and sculptures hanging on the walls and on stands.

From there, I proceeded up the stairs with a museum attendant in tow. The first thing I noticed when I got up the stairs was a square sculpture that was made of twigs. It was supposed to symbolize rain. It took a couple minutes to see how it symbolized rain and how they were arranged in a vertical fashion. From there I walked around the floor and noticed different types of paintings and sculptures: impressionist paintings, portraits, landscapes, etc. Most of the paintings I didn’t understand, but I did know one of the paintings and it was the portrait of George Washington. It was a very nice portrait of him. I believe that it was a portrait before he died in 1799.



This is me taking a picture next to the portrait of George Washington



While I was there, the museum attendant who followed me upstairs told me that one of the lamps they had displayed in one of display cases was very expensive because it was made by Tiffany. I told her that I didn’t know Tiffany made lamps.  

 

The only senses you are allowed to use in a museum is the senses of vision, smell, and sound. One smell that was prominent in the upstairs in the museum is the smell of oil from the oil-based paints used to paint the oil paintings. The smell wasn’t too bad, but I didn’t mind the smell. You are not allowed to touch anything. If you was to touch anything, you could potentially damage a valuable or priceless art piece and as the old saying goes,” you break it, you buy it”. There was one art piece that only the attendant was allowed to touch with a glove and it was this metal string thing that made sound depending on how you moved your hand. I found that was an interesting object.

On that day I didn’t notice a lot of people in the museum. I would describe people who go to museum on a monthly basis as a stoic type; People who can just observe art for hours at a time. I did notice a grandma and her granddaughter walking around the museum. One museum I would love to go to is the Smithsonian museums up in Washington D.C. and the other places it is at.      

Upon my departure from the museum, I thought that it was an interesting experience and the art I have ever seen was that of Da' Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, etc.; famous artist like that; Out of these entire artists, my favorite artists are Leonardo Da’ Vinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo . My favorite art piece by Da’ Vinci is the Last Supper. My favorite art piece by Rembrandt is the Gates of Hell and the pieces that were took off of it: the thinker, and the kiss. And my favorite piece by Michelangelo is The Moment in Men’s Creation in the Sistine chapel at the Vatican. I would say that I like the fresco paintings. I know that I’m not an artist, but I do appreciate great masterpieces.

 

     

Rebus outline

This is an image of the Sony Press Conference at last year's E3 Video Game Conference in Los Angeles. The reason why i chose this image as my entertainment community image is that I am an avid gamer and Sony is one of my favorite video game company. This image is just a small percentage of the total video game community in the entire world. This is one of the bases I use to make friends.



This is the iconic McDonald's Golden Archs. This is the image I chosen as my career community image. the reason why is that this is my current job that I have and will be doing until I finish college and begin my career job. It has taught me the skills that I will need later in life to become successful. At this job, I made many friends who play video games like I do. But I did make friends there who didn't play them.





This is an image of the Empire State Building in New York City. The reason why I chose this image for my family community image is that like every excellently built building, it needs a good foundation and good support beams; this also goes for families. As I grew up in life, my family offered me good support on anything I did. They gave me a great foundation meaning good morals, etc. This translates to the way I play my video games and in games where you have to make hard choices that affect everyone, I try to pick the choices that benefit everyone.
There is a famous quote that I like by Voltaire "Every man is guility for all the good he didn't do"

Joe Connolly

                                              Joe Connolly "The Graffiti Guerrilla"

The person I chose the documentary is Joe Connolly. Joe Connolly is a Graffiti Buffer in Los Angeles. He has over 30,000 hours of community service He goes around the city and paints over illegally done graffiti tags, bombs, pieces, etc. He has became a fan of the legal done pieces that are on buildings, galleries, and the streets. He likes the graffiti art(murals,etc.). The next paragraph is going to be the rhetorical appeals of he and his work.

The first of the appeals is the ethos of his work. Ethos is the presentation of yourself and your creditability. The people of Los Angeles appreciate what he is doing and how he is improving the city by removing the bad graffiti tags. He is indirectly reducing the murder rate in the city by removing the rival gang's tags in other gangs "territory". The second of the appeals is the logos of his work. Logos is the reasoning behind the argument/situation. the logos of his work is that he is cleaning up his neighborhoods and the streets in the city of bad graffiti. He gets into the heads of the taggers by going to the places they tag and painting over it over and over again until they stop tagging there. he sometimes puts his own tag A.M.B(All My Bitches). the final appeal of his work is the pathos of it. pathos is the emotions that occur from it and how he feels about it. you know that he really cares for the his community by logging over 30,000 hours of community service by going around town painting over graffiti.

The reason why Ichose Joe as my person is that graffiti can be an art if it is legally done and it is appealing to the eye and it's not a bunch of tags and gang symbols.

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Art museum

The scene I went to was The Art Museum in the Singletary Center.



        

This is me taking a picture next to the portrait of George Washington

The next thing I'm going to discuss is some of my senses that i used while at the Art Museum.

Sight: The first thing i saw when i walked into the museum is the current animal show that they were putting on. it was paintings of horses and other animals in portrait and landscape style. I couldn't take a picture of it, from there i went upstairs to the where i could take pictures. i saw many different types of sculptures, paintings, etc. up here. most of them i didn't understand what the meanings of some of the paintings or sculptures mean. i did seen a painting that i have seen before and it was the portrait of George Washington when he was the president of the United States before his death in 1799.

Sound: When i first walked into the museum i didn't hear much sound coming from the people in the museum. the reason is that you don't suppose to talk in museums. if people had to talk, they had to speak in a little bit louder than a whisper. i talked to one of the museum people and she told me what some of the paintings and sculptures mean, like one of the sculptures hanging on the wall was made of twigs and it symbolized rain in some form or fashion i don't know.

 

 

Upon my departure from the museum, i thought that it was an interesting experience and the art i have ever seen was that of Da' Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, etc.; famous artist like that.